Zero Charisma

Trailer for a new D&D-based movie that was just released at South by Southwest, ZERO CHARISMA. Game masters take note!

Freaks and Geeks

More D&D in popular culture! Here’s the the 2000 Freaks and Geeks episode “Disco and Dragons.” You can watch the whole thing free on youtube (subtitled in Spanish, but hey, Spanish lesson and D&D dramaturgy . . . two birds, one broadsword.) The show is set in a high school in 1980 – 15 years before SKM takes place – but it’s still a nice look at adolescent nerdhood in D&D’s heyday. The sound on the last part of the episode doesn’t work, but here’s a compilation of just the D&D scenes, plus the first four parts of the ep if you’re interested.

Community

The first two minutes of the 2011 “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode of COMMUNITY. According to Qui, this was a major inspiration point in the generation of the play. You have to pay to see the full episode, but you can already get a sense of what’s going on by the small sections available free online.

Can Dungeons & Dragons Make You a Successful Person?

Of course it can! A spirited discussion of the “real life” benefits of regular adventuring. And a great intro to D&D as well!

D&D Night One

Cate Blanchett: In a classroom near the Red Line, in the year two-thousand and thirteen, six adventurers and one geek overlord gathered to embark on an adventure. For some, it was their first quest: for others, but another journey in an epic series of fantasy awesomnitude.

C1’s resident D&D loremaster Chris Robichaud begins his prep session with members of the SKM design team.

First, the party created their characters: Montauk, the Human Cleric; Shalimar, the Elf Wizard; Kōn, the Gnome Thief/Hammer Dulcimerist; Bane, the Dwarf Fighter; and Rob Najarian, the Fight Director Too Good at Playing the Paladin to Need an Alias.

SKM Director Shira Milikowsky becomes Shalimar the Elven Wizard! Cleric/Lighting Designer Justin Paice and Dwarf/Production Manager Karthik Subramanian articulate their approval.

The quest was fraught with perils: Dubious townsfolk; odd-smelling mead; trying to decide where to go as a party for about an hour…

Finally, we agreed on our collective alignment differences and settled on the burned-out tavern that carried a peculiar odor . . .

Pick your alignment … hilarious Harry Potter alignment image to come…

When suddenly, after a foolhardy solo advance into a smelly basement from a dramaturgically inclined gnome, three bloodthirsty and aroused lizard warriors attack!

These guys had all the luck…and a strength-sapping odor

The gnome was unconscious; the wizard, unable to use her spells in close quarters; the cleric, busy resuscitating the idiot chaotic-neutral gnome; the paladin, the dwarf and the amazon kicking lizard ass as best as they could. But the DM’s dice rolls were too powerful, and the party almost down for the count!

“Oh no. I’m the only one who touches these dice. And they don’t touch other dice” CR

When finally, the party’s fortunes changed! The paladin and the gnome passed out on the floor, the Ranger, Dwarf and Cleric beateth the poo out of the stenchful lizardmen. The party barely escaped with their lives, but lived to play again!

What lies in store for the party? And what of the cast and the C1 staff? How will they fare against Master Robichaud’s mighty D&D aptitude?